Which One Is It?
1. A leak — check this first, it is free
Something is bleeding pressure out of the system as fast as the pump can build it. Work through these in order, because the first is far and away the most common:
- Toilets. A flush valve leaking silently into the bowl is the classic. Put a few drops of food colouring in the cistern, wait twenty minutes, and look in the bowl
- Outside taps and irrigation. Especially anything left cracked open or a hose left running
- The line from the well to the house. Look for unexplained damp or an unusually green patch of grass
- A failed check valve or foot valve, letting water run back down the well
- Any fixture in a part of the house you do not visit daily — a basement utility sink, a barn tap
The diagnostic that settles it: turn off every fixture in the house and watch the gauge. If pressure still falls, the leak is real.
2. The pressure switch never reaches cut-off
The switch tells the pump to stop at a set pressure — commonly 50 or 60 psi. If its contacts have worn, or it has been set beyond what the pump can actually deliver, it never gives that instruction and the pump keeps running.
The tell: pressure builds normally, reaches a plateau below the cut-off setting, and simply sits there with the pump still going. Typically $150–$400 to put right, and it is one of the cheaper outcomes on this page.
3. Declining yield — the urgent one
The pump cannot build pressure because the well is not supplying it with enough water. Pressure creeps up slowly, or never gets far at all, and the pump runs on and on trying.
This is the serious case because a pump in this state is at genuine risk of running dry, which destroys it quickly. If you cannot find a leak and pressure will not build, switch the pump off at the breaker rather than letting it continue.
The remedies here are a yield conversation — storage, hydrofracking or deepening — and emphatically not a bigger pump, which would empty the well faster.
If you cannot find a leak and pressure will not build, switch the pump off. Running it is not preserving your water supply — it is risking the pump. A few hours without water is a great deal cheaper than a pump replacement.
What the Fixes Run
| Cause | Typical cost | Urgency |
|---|---|---|
| Running toilet | $10–$40 for a flush valve | Fix it today |
| Outside tap or hose left on | Free | Fix it now |
| Pressure switch | $150–$400 | This week |
| Check or foot valve | Varies by system | This week |
| Line leak between well and house | Varies with location and access | Promptly — it is also wasting water |
| Declining yield | Storage $1,500–$4,000; fracking $2,000–$4,500 | Switch the pump off meanwhile |
Questions
How much is this costing me in electricity?
A continuously running well pump is a meaningful load — typically several hundred to over a thousand watts depending on the pump. Running around the clock rather than a few minutes an hour, that is a noticeable addition to a bill, and it is one of the ways people first notice the problem.
Can I just turn the pump on and off manually to save it?
As a short-term measure while you arrange a repair, switching it off between uses is sensible and better than letting it run continuously. As an ongoing arrangement it is not — you will forget, and a pump switched on and left while the underlying fault persists is back where it started.
The pump runs constantly but I still have good pressure. Is that still a problem?
Yes. Good pressure with a pump that never stops usually means a leak large enough to match the pump's output. The water is going somewhere, you are paying to move it, and the pump is running continuously. Worth finding.
Could it be the pressure tank?
A failed tank usually produces the opposite symptom — rapid on-off short-cycling rather than continuous running. That said, tank and switch problems often travel together, so a tank check is part of diagnosing this properly.